We present results from a multisite (`Whole Earth Telescope') photometric campaign on PG 1336-018, the close eclipsing binary system containing a pulsating subdwarf B (sdB) star. The main part of the campaign (1999 April) resulted in ~172 h of observations, representing a coverage of about 47 per cent, and additional data were obtained outside the

Available from the Minor Planet Center.

IAUC 8235 available at Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams.

We have modelled the central emitting broad line region (BLR) of the III Zw 2 using the Hα, Hβ, Lyα and Mg II (2798) broad lines. We proposed that two-component model, consisting of inner Keplerian relativistic disk and an outer emitting structure that surrounds the disk, can explain the shape of III Zw 2 broad lines.

Flares and X-ray jets on the Sun arise in active regions where magnetic flux emerges from the solar interior amd interacts with the ambient magnetic field. The interactions are believed to occur in electric current sheets separating regions of opposite magnetic polarity. The current sheets located in the corona or upper chromosphere have long been

We follow, using both optical spectroscopy and photometry, the ``textbook'' colliding-wind WR+O binary WR 140 through and between the periastron passages of 1993 and 2001. An extensive collection of high-quality spectra allows us to derive precise orbital elements for both components simultaneously. We confirm the extremely high eccentricity of the